


10 things I hate about you

by JJ_Santiago



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: 10 things I hate about you AU that literally no one asked for, Dani being a know it all, F/F, Jamie being a badass, Playing Hard to Get, a little twist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:19:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29704635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JJ_Santiago/pseuds/JJ_Santiago
Summary: Damie meets 10 things I hate about you, enjoy!
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Comments: 7
Kudos: 16





	1. Chapter 1

Dani was always the perfect one, the one that always had a plan, always knew what she was doing and always had everyone’s attention. She used to be little miss perfect, but then things changed.

She became a person that wanted people to not be able to predict what she was doing, she became almost a completely different version of herself.

People looked at the blonde American and the only thing they ever saw was a shadow of the girl she used to be.

Which is how she got to where she is now stood at the front of the class giving what she thought was an interesting presentation on Shakespeare. 

“To be or not…I guess that really isn’t the question.”

Members of the class started laughing along with the teacher that seemed to be having a hard time with keeping the chuckles in.

Ms. Oliver was currently leaning on the desk trying to hold on for support. As Dani walked her way back to her seat.

“Yeah maybe Shakespeare would say that to you if he saw the view I’ve seen.”

A younger boy with glasses and slightly curly hair looked up and over towards Dani, his stare almost burning. 

Dani of course knew the boy, she was a different person at the time, thought about different things, thought that she wanted different things. But of course, she figured out who she was and who is wanted to be and that had completely changed.

Currently the boy was her worst nightmare and probably best enemy. It’s even harder to imagine that the two of them used to be friends.

“Of course you’d think that, but if you even bothered to read Shakespeare then surly you’d know that things were a lot different in his time.”

“Oh yeah, what time was that…the stone ages?”

Again the class erupted in laughter. Ani looked around trying to find one student other than herself who seemed interested in this lesson, but it became apparent to her that she wasn’t going to find one.

She looked at the teacher who cleared her throat before looking back at the boy. She fixed him with a devil stare before speaking up.

“Mr O’Mara, if you think this class if funny I will ask you to leave.”

“Oh not at all, ma’am, I just believe that the way Danielle decided to present was slightly….satisfying.”

Dani gripped the hard, she had so much anger that it felt as if she could break the table where she was sitting. 

The whole class fell silent until the classroom door barged open. But no one moved. Not even the teacher who never even looked up for her fixated stare on Edmund.

“What did I miss?” The voice from the door snarked.

“Prejudice and sexism, feel free to look it up.” 

“Thanks.” Before the door barger then walked out.

The bell had rung for class and stampedes of people ran from every door on sight. Dani swiftly made her way over to the library getting ready to study. When she saw someone in the yard smoking with a girl pinned to the wall. 

The person was a woman, with mid length curly dark locks, hazel eyes, overalls clinging to her figure and a flannel shirt tied around her waist. 

The girl pinned to the wall was completely enthralled by her, moving a hand up and around her bicep. The brunette locked eyes with her and smirked. 

This caused Dani to shake her head in disgust and scoff slightly, always the brunettes, she thought to herself before making her way to the library.

———————————————

Five minutes into her study session and then a was a bang on her table, and in front of her was sat the brunette she saw earlier, a stack of books thrown in front of her and a pen resting on her left ear.

“Can I help you?” The blonde looked up at the brunette who was again smirking at her.

The brunette took out the pen from her and placed it on the table. Along with a bag. 

Dani could clearly see the brunette now, the hazel swirling in her eyes, the carefully moulded face and cautious eyes. The way her lips were drawn in a fine line but curved at one end. 

She was obviously new, Dani had never seen her before and she would remember someone as annoying and unthoughtful as the woman stood in front of her.

“Are you lost?” Dani tried again after gaining no response from the woman.

The brunette sat down in front of her and opened a book which was Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. Dani had noticed after she had read the identically covered version of her own.

“Nah, somethin’ tells me I’m exactly where I need to be.” The brunette smiles almost laughing and Dani can sense the sarcasm. It’s practically dripped from the woman’s mouth.

“The name’s Jamie, by the way, Jamie Taylor, in case you were wondering.”

Dani rolled her eyes, realising if she rolled them any further she would probably see her ass.

The blonde lifted her own copy of Shakespeare and began annotations for Ms. Oliver’s class. Dani had always been devoted to school work wanting to get the best grade she could get her hands on, and after her father passed away her mother had doubled down her efforts of making sure that Dani couldn’t possibly fail.

And because Dani was the only child she was thrown into the pits of a controlling rule subjecting mother who thought she knew what was best for her daughter even though it felt like she had never had a place in that family at all.

She looked over at Jamie and noticed her accent with which she spoke. She was British obviously, not from around her, clearly a new comer, but why was she attempting to associate herself with Dani, what did she want.

“No, I couldn’t care less.”

But the look in her eyes that Jamie picked up told a different story altogether. She just had to wait for the right moment.

“I’m in you class for English Literature and I’m having a little trouble understand some of the old man’s work, care to help a fellow classmate?” 

The question is…..would Dani be willing to help her?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tried to add a little more story into it, worked a while on this chapter, and after lots of cursing and shouting here is the second chapter, enjoy and don't hate me too much. Feel free to yell at me for whatever reasons. Shout out to the discord server that keeps me truly distracted from writing but also gives me the sanity to carry on.

Dani woke up to the second of heavy thuds across the top floor of the house, decoding that her mother was once again drunk and was no doubt in the “I need painkillers” stage of the hangover in which she had probably used more alcohol instead of running to the kitchen cabinet. 

Drunk mothers, eh?

The blonde woke up remembering what day it was and where she was supposed to be at that time. Promptly urging her to get out of bed, rushing the action of brushing her teeth and running a brush through her hair before splashing a little bit of makeup on and running out of the house with her books flying everywhere.

She walked briskly into school ignoring the many people that waved her way, including Edmund, who as usual was hanging out with a crowd that he thought adored him, once Dani showed him who was boss all thoughts of being consider a god amongst the group were thrown out of the window.

The American walked into the main classroom and took her seat before the teacher who was currently reading and furiously typing something on her laptop.

“You’re here early, Dani, go for you, what’s on today’s list?”

“It’s another one of Shakespeare, miss, but I’m also throwing some poetry into the mix this time.”

Ms. Oliver had always had a soft spot for the blonde, she was like the daughter she never had, she wouldn’t go as far as saying that she was a teacher’s pet, far from it, but Dani loved her more than her own mother. Not just because she wasn’t drunk but because she did the things that mothers were supposed to do. She cared.

—————————————————

The class started relatively on time until a certain Jamie Taylor walked in half way through, barging the door as always. 

“Sorry m’late.”

But she couldn’t have sounded any less sorry if she tried, throwing her books on the desk and putting away a pack of cigarettes in her pocket ready for a later use, her curly brown hair bouncing as she slumped down the chair in order to act as if she was paying attention. 

“Maybe tell that to your face.” Edmund and his goons decide to join in.

“Try telling that to your dick and the girls you never manage to fuck.” Jamie smirked and Dani rolled her eyes before laughing to herself which the brunette didn’t miss.

“Language, Miss Taylor, please.”

The whole class collective snickered before regaining focus on the lesson once more as the teacher dove head first into a lake of Shakespeare. 

She bang explaining the meaning behind a certain line:

These violent delights have violent ends  
And in their triump die, like fire and powder  
Which, as they kiss, consume

Which Dani found rather fitting, the lines had many meanings to different people, a line from Romeo and Juliet but unless you’d read it you’d have thought it was from somewhere else. 

Dani read the lines as someone explaining their emotions to someone, explaining their mind to someone, how being violent earns violence in return, and about passion consuming you, or maybe Dani had just spent too long sat in English Lit analysing quotes all day.

————————————————

It was lunch and Dani was sat on the table with her most trusted friend Theo who wasn’t up to much other than finding the next way to scandalize Mrs Cavanaugh. 

The two of them had been close friends for a long while, had many sleepovers in the past mainly at Theo’s as Dani didn’t dare have anyone at her house whilst her mother was using alcohol as a substitute husband.

On the far end table sat Jamie with one girl and a guy who she was clearly third wheeling but had been good friends with her from when she started here. 

“What about the blondie?” Rebecca has said.

“What about the Blondie, there’s nothing to her, except she’s American and a real pain in my arse.” Peter looked over at Dani’s table as Dani and Theo were chatting about something.

“Jamie, what do you think?” 

Jamie had been staring at the blonde for several minutes whilst Rebecca and Peter had been talking about her.

“Don’t get me wrong she’s pretty, maybe a little too pretty but I don’t know.” 

Rebecca smiled at the comment, she had of course caught on to the whole Jamie-staring-at-Dani thing but didn’t say anything since she wanted to make sure she had her assumptions correct. 

Rebecca and Peter as well as half of their grade had known that Dani was gay since she apparently dumped Edmund even though they were barely a thing to begin with. 

“Why don’t we have a bet, apparently Dani is gay but she’s never seemed interested in anyone other than William Shakespeare and we all know how that ended up, so, I will pay you 50 bucks to try and get Dani to date you before the year ends. We have a bet?” Peter looked at Jamie expectantly.

“That is the bloody worst bet I have ever heard.” Jamie laughed causing Rebecca to join in.

“She has a point Pete.”

“Okay, then how about this, I’ll pay you to sleep with Dani and show Edmund exactly where he stand in the social hierarchy, there’s nothing better to watch than a man who can’t get what he wants.”

“And what’s in it for you?” Jamie looked at Peter confused, why would he being attempting to do this if he wasn’t getting something out of it which made Jamie worry. That was never a good thing, even if he apparently “meant well”.

“None of us like Edmund, right, royal pain the arse, and he wants Dani, so show him that Dani isn’t interested, show him that Edmund can’t just have whatever he wants because he has money….prove that Dani is gay and he’ll back off. Also….it’d be cool to watch.”

Peter earned himself as slap which Rebecca rewarded him with. Rebecca had always liked Dani, she’d even helped her throughout her first years here and gotten her grades up, she basically owed Dani for her relationship with Peter as he noticed her after a rather heated debate about something to do with science and he thought she was smart. 

But now their whole group was regarded as the nerds and outcasts so they usually either kept to themselves or considered how to make themselves higher in the rankings once again.

Jamie however was new to the whole hierarchy of social life, it had never really peaked her interests and then of course she’d moved through school to school. 

—————————————————

Dani was on her way home getting inside the truck and turning the key in the ignition waiting for the car behind her to move. She noticed it was Edmund’s who had parked right in the way and made a split decision to move the gears into reverse and back into Edmund’s car, earning him a huge dent and severals layers of paint to be added the car. 

Meanwhile Jamie couldn’t help but laugh as Edmund shouted from his lungs with anger and irritation. 

“Next time I’ll slash the tires ready.” The brunette laughed heavily whilst Dani looked at her trying to figure out why she was there.

“Mate, next time move your car, she’ll do worse.” Jamie shook her head.

“He really shouldn’t have parked it there.”

“Hey, it ain’t your fault, don’t go getting soft on me now, Poppins, you’ll destroy the reputation you so clearly have here.”

“Poppins? You giving out nicknames now? If my so-called reputation meant anything to you, you’d know that nicknames don’t get you anywhere.”

Jamie looked down and then around to see who was watching before leaning slightly forward and towards her. Dani’s eyes following her as she moved.

“Yeah, but you look cute when you get flustered. You’re terrible at hiding it.”

Jamie walked smirking as she went and Dani’s mouth opened in shock, the brunette was attractive, she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t, but Jamie was also the opposite of everything Dani stood for, and perhaps that’s why she was so intrigued and enthralled by her.

——————————————————

Dani got home eventually after driving even slower knowing that her drunken mother would be notified of what happened and in a much worse state than she would normally. 

Sitting in her car another minute longer after parking to catch her breath and she decided that she had to face the music.

She stepped out of the car and walked rather slowly towards the door finding her key that would be buried at the bottom of the bag.

Once opening the door and closing it behind her it was as if her mother had suddenly become aware of her existence. 

“Really Danielle? You had to crash into his car? I am not made of money you know.”

“No, in fact we barely have any, and I didn’t crash into his car, I bumped into it, it dented, that’s barely a crash, besides he deserved, you wouldn’t understand it.”

“No maybe not, but you’re going to have to find a way to make it up to him before his parents start suing.”

Dani rolled her eyes and huffed her last bit of oxygen out before climbed the steps to her room and closing the door behind her. She placed her books on the desk and fell backwards on the bed laying on her back looking up to the ceiling that had stars painted on it from her childhood back when her father was her best friend and when her mother cared enough to cook. 

The blonde decided she needed to get out of the house, clear her head, so sliding the window up and crawling out of it, she began to climb down the house but having her head filled with so many thought she placed her foot on the wrong ledge and she fell, but much to her own surprise she felt warm calloused hands catching her before she reached the ground.

“Sorry, I should have announced that I was here.”

“Um, thanks for catching me.”

“Anytime. I saw you drive here, watched as you waited an extra minute in you car trying to collect yourself, and even the way you tried to prolong going in with walking slower. I’m the best at sneaking in and out of places I shouldn’t be but my own house isn’t one of them. SO what’s the problem?”

Dani looked at the brunette trying to see what her catch was, why was she so suddenly interested in Dani, the blonde thought that she’d put up enough concrete walls for someone to have to want to drill through them to find her true self, but Jamie was almost relentless.

“Why do you care?”

Jamie was taken aback by the response. She had seen that Dani wasn’t the most open person when it came to herself, often expressing herself in English class with various poems and forms of Shakespeare but outside when it was just the two of them, completely different story. One Jamie was intrigued to read.

“I’m just trying to be nice, you don’t have to share your problems but sometimes doing so helps. I’m asking because it’s all very well looking like you have your crap together but when you break down, it hurts.”

“My mother, is my problem, ever since my father….she’s….not been the same.”

“Ah one of those problems, is it?”

“It’s like before this happened, I knew where I stood, what I wanted, and then suddenly the ground has been taken from underneath me and I’ve become someone I never wanted to be because I’ve been forced to grow up.”

“I have to say you’re doing great, better than I would have, better than I did in fact, you’re doing great.”

Dani nodded before falling into her sadness and releasing the tears in which Jamie steadily wrapped her arms around Dani pulling her into an embrace she clearly needed and the brunette was finally glad to receive a hug that wasn’t from her carrying a plant and caking herself in dirt. 

“Sometimes it’s good to cry, cry about 5 or 6 times if I’m honest, of course I’d never let anyone know that, I wouldn’t be the cool rebel everyone seems to think I am if I told everyone that.”

The two of them walked over to the porch where they sat down beside each other looking on as the cars drove past and people took in groceries. Dogs barking and flowers attempting to bloom in people’s front yards. 

This was Jamie’s chance to impress Peter….so why the hell was it so damn hard for her to follow through?

**Author's Note:**

> I know it's short but it's the first chapter and things are about to get interesting, please enjoy and let me know if there's thing I should add!


End file.
